[1][2] Educated at Downe House School and the Royal College of Music, she embarked on a career with the BBC in 1954, initially as a studio manager, then becoming a programme producer of Radio 4's 'Woman's Hour'.
Her biographical subjects tend to be individuals who have taken a spiritual journey of their own, and whose subsequent influence has been important.
She was married to the former Jesuit priest and columnist for The Tablet, John Harriott, until his death at the end of 1990.
[3][4] She was a patron of the Prison Phoenix Trust and a Trustee of the Oxford Zendo.
Her books have been translated into French, Japanese, German, Italian, Dutch and Polish.